Monday, February 18, 2019

Lyndon LaRouche is dead. There’s a sentence his followers
would’ve hoped to keep from the media, but at age 96, the myths, manipulation, paranoia, smoke
and mirrors about the man have finally faded. LaRouche, this bizarre firebrand who never
met a conspiracy theory he didn’t like, was able to build a career by melding
social conflict into opportunistic fundraising. The New
York Times’ obit called LaRouche “the quixotic, apocalyptic leader of a
cultlike political organization” and acknowledged his anti-Semitism, insults
against Native Americans, and hatred of the environmentalist movement and British
royals. Jacobin magazine cited LaRouche’s
“aimless and contorted reign” in its description of the man. But that’s just a start.

Widely acknowledged as a neo-fascist, LaRouche’s early
interest in Marxism turned horribly astern by the 1970s. In the decades since,
he partnered with the KKK, engaged in racist dogma, denounced the Holocaust as
a Jewish hoax, preached nuclear war against the Soviet Union and blamed the
global drug trade and international Satanism on a secret UK monarchy plan.
LaRouche cast a practice of homemade psych-ops to maintain a frightening
control of leaders in his organization. He also railed against rock music and as
late as 1978 cited the Beatles as an untalented arm of the British government
he so despised, and during the height of the AIDS crisis called for those
living with the illness to be condemned and segregated. Later, his organization
was threaded through the Tea Party and he spent some years stating that Barack
Obama was Hitler. Somehow, he sought the Democratic Party line for his droning political
pursuits and carefully used words like “labor” in his outreach. Though patently
fruitless, the ‘LaRouche for President’ campaigns were as tenacious as was the
candidate’s delusional platform. To most, it seemed that Lyndon LaRouche would
never go away and had always been there.

One cold December afternoon in 1999, I was disturbed
to find a LaRouche campaign table in my own Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. While the
neighborhood was at that time known for its older Republican voter base, a
younger, more professional population had already begun moving in, turning the
tide. The area’s then-City Councilman was a notorious conservative who’d sought
to name the pier after Ronald Reagan, but his lack of success in this venture
offered increasing hope to ethnically diverse Bay Ridge progressives. The
increased tolerance may have been missed by the LaRouche camp as it sought attract
allies to his schizophrenic political plane.

As I strolled the Bay Ridge busy shopping district of
86th Street near 5th Avenue, the holiday lights sparkled
in many colors overheard and each store’s sound system jingled and swooned. And
somehow in the midst of this, sitting tall above the crowd, there lingered
LaRouche. As he stared beadily at the conspiracy theory literature laid out before
him, a blank-looking disciple engaged passersby with the question: “Are you a
Democrat?”, seeking signatures toward the ballot line. I was drawn to this like
a roadside accident.

After approaching the table and answering
affirmatively, I had a question of my own. Pointing to LaRouche, I loudly asked
the follower “How is it possible that this fascist and racist can call himself
a ‘Democrat’?” Within scant seconds, LaRouche was on his feet and seemed to
keep on standing as all 6’7” of him was suddenly millimeters from my face. Wearing
the rapid-fire fury of a junkyard guard dog, LaRouche shouted, hurling
profanities and accusations that spoke volumes of his brand of governance. His
teeth gnashed, the candidate’s face remained threateningly close to my own, the
rage only increasing as I refused to step back or even blink. His eyes of Aryan
blue burnt intently through the square lenses of his glasses, the gnarled, greying
brow unified in senseless umbrage.

“LaRouche, are you going to hit me?!”, I asked loudly,
assuring the attention of confused holiday shoppers. “You’re in my space. Are
you going to hit me?!” The throngs began slowing down, the crowd of interest he’d
hoped for now awaiting his response to my pointed questions. I looked at the
people behind me and then shouted my question again, asking if an actual
presidential candidate has ever acted in this fashion (this being well before
Trump). He scanned the growing crowd, looking into my eyes with utter hate, as his
disciple grabbed the tall man’s arm, encouraging him to calm down. “He’s no
one. No one!”, she repeatedly told LaRouche. “No one at all!”

Through the madness, I kept my own voice calm, recognizing
how insane my opponent in the struggle already appeared. He became only more
incensed when I clarified that I never raised my voice, never used profanities in
this exchange—this was all him. “You
called me a fucking fascist, you FUCKING BASTARD!”, LaRouche screamed above
the traffic noise, ignoring the pleas of the disciple. “WHO SENT YOU? WHO SENT YOU HERE?!”, he paranoically asked again
and again. My answer only roiled him further. “No one sent me here. I live
here. I believe in the First Amendment, but why are you here?”

LaRouche’s next statement was particularly shocking; already
drowning in a sea of irrationality, he asked: “Why are you calling me a fascist?”, defiantly stating “I’m not Italian!”. I angrily asked what
ethnicity has to do with this, adding “Are you trying to put down Italians in a
neighborhood where many Italian Americans live?!” He couldn’t have known my heritage,
but just imagine anyone engaging in this kind of argument while trying to gain
signatures and spread charm? Ultimately, to avoid the entire exchange, LaRouche
slid back down behind his makeshift grandstand, a street corner soap-box befitting
of a withered, desperate bigot, angry, delusional and violent. There sat a man
whose political convictions lurked in the weakest links of any ideology.

His seething simmered to mere acid reflux, LaRouche
grumbled and stared down again at his lit. As he hissed quietly, the wide-eyed,
plainly-dressed apostle stared on with indignation before breaking into a new
automated smile for the next passerby, “Oh hello, ma’am, are you a Democrat?”

Friday, February 15, 2019

NYC Jazz Record, Artist feature, January 2019

James
Newton on the Trail of Dolphy. Again.

by John Pietaro

The
specter of Eric Dolphy looms large and haunts indiscriminately. Some 55 years
after his untimely passing, the global jazz community remains fascinated with
this giant of the music, of conceptions far afield. Not the least among his
followers is flutist and composer James Newton, who has always attested to
Dolphy as the force that led him to the instrument. “Eric was and remains among
the greatest of flute players. He understood the history, the future and global
sounds, influencing everyone”, Newton explained, still happily under the spell.

‘Eric Dolphy-Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New
York Studio Sessions’ (Resonance) is a project that James and JoAnn Newton
labored over for several years. This three-CD (or LP) boxed set hit the bins in
December to great fanfare. It stands as the first opportunity in 30 years for
listeners to hear previously unreleased work, both as a stand-alone disc and in
context of the two artful but overlooked Dolphy records, ‘Iron Man’ and
‘Conversations’, the products of the ’63 sessions. According to Newton, the
project was inasmuch a labor of necessity as one of love: “It’s been a long
journey for myself and my wife JoAnn. She’s a lawyer and helped with research
and legal issues. She is also a great Dolphy fan—when we first met, that was
one of the things that sealed the deal!”, he said. The commitment of both begat
the final document’s fine details. “I have to commend Zev Feldman and Resonance
Records for giving it such deserved dignity”. In addition to the three discs,
the set is accompanied by a 100-page book filled with statements by Dolphy
cohorts and the insight of a half-century.

In 1964, as Eric Dolphy embarked on what was to be his
final performances, the European tour with Charles Mingus, he left a series of
scores and reels of tape from his 1963 sessions with close friends Hale and
Juanita Smith, for safe keeping. When the tragic news of Dolphy’s passing came,
the pair quietly held on to this bounty for decades. Recognizing the need to
have this music go public, the Smiths notified Newton, who immediately reviewed
the find.

“The scores came first—the tapes a little later”, he
explained. “Maybe four years ago we got permission from the Dolphy Foundation
to donate the scores to the Library of Congress. Then the focus fell onto the
recordings”. Newton explained that Hale Smith, a noted composer and educator,
was one of his mentors. Following Smith’s death in 2009, Newton remains close
to his widow. “If it weren’t for Hale and Juanita, this music might have remained
on the shelf forever”. Like an earlier Dolphy discovery they shared with
Newton, that which he produced in 1987 as ‘Other Aspects’ (Blue Note), the
‘Musical Prophet’ boxed set offers a new vision of the artist. “These
recordings show us the crucial 1963-4 period where the language was just
exploding in new ways”, Newton said. “I treasure these recordings. We chose
only the strongest outtakes, the ones at the highest level, to honor Eric’s
great heritage. That was our litmus test”. With this release, powerful and
historic alternate takes of such titles as “Mandrake”, “Burning Spear”, “Alone
Together” and the much revered “Jitterbug Waltz” are now available. The boxed
set, in total, is analogous to a master class.

For James Newton, the master class began long ago.
Although still in grade school at the time of Dolphy’s death, he embarked on a
personal study while in his teens. Drawn to the instrument, he moved to the
flute from electric bass, which he’d been playing in a Hendrix cover band. Newton
became engaged in LA’s rich jazz heritage, that which was spawned by the Creole
migration from New Orleans and Texas, thrived under the influence of master
teacher Lloyd Reese and progressed through Lester Young, Dexter Gordon, Chico
Hamilton and Horace Tapscott. “Plus, we had Stravinsky, Schoenberg and William
Grant Still, the impact of the film industry, and history of gospel”.

Newton, once immersed in the music community, was welcomed
by the likes of David Murray, Bobby Bradford, John Carter and particularly Arthur
Blythe. He also sought out serious tutelage. “Buddy Collette was my teacher
(he’d been a student of Reese). I started with him at age 19 and it lasted about
15 years. Even after I moved to New York, whenever I’d come back to LA, I always
took lessons with him”. Collette was not only an esteemed jazz artist, but a
staple in broadcast and recording studios, offering a wide palette to his many
students. “Buddy taught Eric, Charles Mingus, Charles Lloyd”. Frank Morgan,
too. “He left an incredible imprint on me, like a second father”. Newton
recalled warmly. “I had a very strong father but when he passed, Buddy kind of
stepped in for me”.

After completing studies at Cal State LA, Newton joined
Stanley Crouch’s Black Music Infinity and then made his recording debut in
1977. A year later he relocated to New York and founded the legendary trio with
pianist Anthony Davis and cellist Abdul Wadud. “Oh man, that band was so much
fun! When I look back on it, I’m reminded of the deep connection”. Newton was
one of the celebrated young lions of the ‘80s, touring the globe with a wealth
of artists. Since then, he’s recorded some twenty-five albums as a flutist and
conducted his own compositions on others. After a left-hand affliction limited
his playing, Newton began focusing exclusively on composition; his latest
recording ‘the Manuel of Light’ was just released. “It’s a chamber work
containing jazz influences and two versions of ‘Amazing Grace’, one dedicated
to President Obama”. He’s also been hard at work on contemporary symphonic
works, however, forays into the past have not ceased either. Surely not with
respect to his first and greatest influence. “I’m so pleased to say that the
world now knows more about Eric Dolphy than it did before”

ARTURO
O’FARRILL and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, Fandango at the Wall:

A Soundtrack for the United
States, Mexico and Beyond (Resilience Music, 2018)

CD review by John Pietaro

O’Farrill’s double-CD extravaganza is as strong a
celebration of Latin culture as it is a response to the odious rhetoric spewing
out of DC. Released shortly before the mid-term elections, as Trump daily vilifies
a refugees’ caravan as a “criminal invasion”, this global statement is timely,
indeed. The liner notes by producer/multi-instrumentalist Kabir Sehgal, reminds
us that complacency about such antagonism is dangerous “because this distrust
and suspicion, left unchecked, can turn into darker forces”. With that
O’Farrill sought to create an event based on fandango, the annual musical and cultural event at the border of
Veracruz and San Diego. He and Sehgal partnered with Jorge Francisco Castillo,
the founder of fandango, in this “project
which tears down the human-made walls that form between people”. This album is
the first of a three-part project seeking to reinforce cross-border relations
between the US and Mexico; to follow are a history book (with a foreword by
David Brinkley) and documentary about the son
jarocho musicians of Veracruz.

It’s impossible to separate this work from its
resistance politics, but the bacchanal built into most every cut insures the
joy of pure listening. The melodies, both soaring and lush, are realized
through bristling orchestrations of churning rhythms, global voicings, flowing
improv and top-tier soloists. The strength of O’Farrill’s 18-piece Afro Latin
Jazz Orchestra engaging with thirty international musicians over thirty-three
cuts will set stereos afire. Adding to the urgency, much here was recorded live.
Among the guests are violinist Regina Carter, oud player Rahim Al Haj, hip hop
artist Ana Tijoux, violin trio the Villalobos Brothers, cellist Akua Dixon, a
wealth of son jarocho musicians and
many more. Of course, O’Farrill’s band swings and burns throughout.

The O’Farrill band kicks into a full-throttle “Xalapa
Bang!”, serious big band jazz built on sizzling samba. Vocalist Mandy Gonzalez
takes the lead along with soloists O’Farrill, the Villalobos Brothers (who also
composed the work) and bari saxist Larry Bustamante—and during the montuno section,
drummer Vince Cherico absolutely takes flight. “Somos Sur”, a compelling
Latin/Hip Hop fusion features the throaty voice of Ana Tijoux tangling with a
mariachi-influenced brass section and the explosive trombones of Rocky Amer and
Frank Cohen. Within the confluence of sounds and cultures, you may note a
Central European tinge within the horn riffs. A focal point of this collection,
however, is O’Farrill’s enthralling “Invisible Suite” placed over three cuts of
the first disc: “Invisible Cities”, “Free Falling Borderless” and “Invisible
Beings”. This is a deftly arranged modern orchestral work powered by bristling
Latin rhythms and smoking solos with ethereal segments and the silvery vocals
of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City. Here, Regina Carter shines as if
voluntarily possessed by the spirit of Leroy Jenkins. Later sections of the
piece also incorporate the New Haven String Quartet, bassist Gregg August and
trumpet player Seneca Black.

The album includes so many stunning musicians and
speaks out on so many relevant issues, that it’s impossible to cover all in a
single review. Suffice to say that “Fandango at the Wall” exemplifies political
art as successful in its creative aims as in its demand for social justice. As Sehgal
states, “we as artists and activists continues to create the world in which we
want to live”.

THE SHADOW OF NOON from the short story collection 'NIGHT PEOPLE and Other Tales of Working New York' By John Pietaro As he sa...

CULTURAL WORKINGS

Welcome to THE CULTURAL WORKER, a blog dedicated to arts of the people, from the radical avant garde and free jazz to dissident folk forms, punk and popular arts . The Cultural Worker celebrates revolutionary creativity and features a variety of essays, reviews, fiction, reportage, poetry and musings through the internet pen of this creative writer, journalist, musician and cultural organizer. Scroll straight down and you'll also find an extensive historical Photo Exhibit of cultural workers in action, followed by a series of Radical Arts Links. The features herein will be unabashedly partisan---make no mistake about that. The concept of the cultural worker as a force of fearless creativity, of social change, indeed as an artistic arm of radicalism, has always been left-wing when applied with any degree of honesty at all. No revolutionary act can be truly complete in the absence of art, no progressive campaign can retain its message sans the daring drumbeat of invention, no act of dissent can stand so strong as that which counts the writers, musicians, painters, dancers, actors, photographers, film and performance artists within its ranks. Here's to the history and legacy of cultural work in the throes of the good fight...john pietaro

John Reed and Boardman Robinson, 1913

Edward Hopper

Anti-War Dance

Louis Fraina

Writer and early Communist movement leader was later purged from the CP in a haze of controversy. Currently all traces of him remain disappeared from official Party documents

William Gropper: "Revolutionary Age", July 1919

Organ of the Left-Wing of the SPUSA (roots of the CPUSA), edited by Louis Fraina

The Funeral of JOHN REED

1920--at the Kremlin Wall

'Metropolis'

Fritz Lang's powerful depiction of a futuristic society ruled by a lazy bourgeois totally dependent on the laboring of the workers in the depths of the city

'New Masses', 1928

Amazingly hip artwork by Louis Lozowick

Brecht in Leathers

Somehow encompasses all that was 30s Berlin and 70s New York all at the same time

The chilling art of Fred Ellis

from "The Daily Worker", 1931

Debs, with Max Eastman and Rose Pastor Stokes

The patron saint of the Socialist Party working closely with Communist Party cultural leaders--the arts can climb above the fray

'The Red Songbook'

compiled by members of the Composers Collective of NY, a CPUSA cultural organization

Langston Hughes

Eisler and Brecht

Composer Hanns Eisler and poet Bertolt Brecht, revolutionary artists

'Song of the United Front''

music by Hanns Eisler, lyric by Bertolt Brecht

Sid Hoff, 'The Daily Worker', 1930s

"Thank God he doesn't have to swim with the dirty masses in Coney Island"

Paul Robeson

performing for British strikers, 1930s

Stuart Davis

at work

'The Anvil'

Organ of the John Reed Club, 1934

The Rebel Song Book, 1935

Socialist Party cultural publication compiled by SP poet and journalist Samuel H. Friedman. In these fervant years Friedman almost singlehandedly led the Socialist arts program which included much live perforamnce, literature, lectures, gallery exhibits and even the radio station WEVD, named for Debs, which broadcast radio dramas, music and speeches.

The League of American Writers

1936 statement on the urgency of the Spanish Civil War by this powerfully united group of Left and liberal writers, coalesced through a CP initiaitive. The League was an an outgrowth of the American Writers Congress. As strong as this grouping was, its creation also sounded the death toll for the more radical John Reed Club, which was dissolved by Party leaders this same year.

'Waiting for Lefty', 1935

The Group Theatre's debut production of Odets immortal agit-prop play. Yes, that's a young Elia Kazan out in front shouting 'Strike! Strike!" decades before the crisis of conscience and career which saw him naming names in his second HUAC hearing. But wasn't this a time?

'Proletarin Literature in the United States'

1935, the first serious collection, edited by Granville Hicks and featuring the work of Mike Gold, Isidor Schneider, Joseph North, and other noted writers of the day

Artists Union

American Artists Congress, 1936

depicted by Stuart Davis

The Benny Goodman Quartet, 1937

Goodman's combo was revolutionary in that it was fully integrated in a time of terrible racism--further the Quartet laid down the ground work for all chamber jazz to come. The blurring solos of Lionel Hampton's vibraphone brought that instrument into the forefront as a major voice in jazz; Gene Krupa's drumming in this period also created a major role for percussionists in all aspects of this genre. Not to forget Teddy Wilson's brilliant piano playing and the clarinet of the leader!

Partisan Review editors, 1938

Phillip Rahv and Dwight McDonald and co.

'Native Son'

Richard Wright's groundbreaking novel, 1940

Disney Cartoonists Strike!

1941--the very radical cartoonists' union takes the studio by storm

Josh White, Leadbelly and friends

1940, NYC, BBC radio airshot

Leadbelly

"Bougeois Blues"

Carl Sandburg

He covered the march of Coxey's Army, became an early Socialist Party cultural worker and was still a beloved, celebrated elder of American folk culture!

John Howard Lawson, HUAC Hearing

speaking back to power

Hollywood on trial

The Ten included Herbert Biberman, screenwriter and director Ring Lardner Jr., screenwriter John Howard Lawson, screenwriter Edward Dmytryk, director Adrian Scott, producer and screenwriter Samuel Ornitz, screenwriter Lester Cole, screenwriter Albert Maltz, screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter Alvah Bessie, screenwriter Also the great Charlie Chaplin left the U.S to fink work because he was blacklisted. Only 10% of the artists succeeded in rebuilding their careers.

Dalton Trumbo

HUAC hearing

Arthur Miller

HUAC vs the playwright

Paul Robeson, 1949

immediately after the Peekskill Riot

Ralph Ellison

'Invisible Man'

The Weavers

Lillian Hellman

Wonderfully atmospheric shot of the brilliant playwright who stared down HUAC

'Masses and Mainstream'

1953

'High Noon', 1952

Gary Cooper stars in the film by blacklisted writer Carl Foreman, a perfect allegory for the isolative stand of those who opposed HUAC and McCarthy

'Howl' by Allen Ginsberg

The militantly revolutionary Gay poet's groundbreaking work, 1956

Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee

the couple modeled the concept of the artist/activist with their brilliant acting abilities and consistent place on the front lines of the struggles for civil rights and labor unions

Beat Poets

In this 1959 photograph taken in New York City, composer/musician David Amram (top right) is seen with some of the artists, poets and writers who would become the leaders of "The Beat Generation." They include (clockwise from Amram): poet Allen Ginsburg, writer Gregory Corso (back to camera), artist Larry Rivers and author Jack Kerouac. Photo: John Cohen, Courtesy of david amram

En Route to Chicago, '68

Jean Genet, William Burrough, Alan Ginsberg--noted poet-activists who were also loud and proud Gay liberationists

'What's Going On?'

Marvin Gaye

The Last Poets

1968: the interplay of free verse poetry, improvisation and the politicis of race and revolution

'Ohio', 1970

CSNY's song offered chilling, driving commentary on the shootings at Kent State University

War Is Over!(if you want it)

A Christmas message from John and Yoko, Times Square, NYC, 1970

Bob Marley

"Get Up, Stand Up"

Samuel Friedman

The Socialist Party's cultural leader seen here in a 1977 pic with his wife. Friedman was a journalist and activist who, after the dissolution of the SP's arts efforts, became one of the Party's candidates for often on multiple occasion (photo by Steve Rossignol).

Peter Tosh

'Talking Revolution'

Rock Against Racism

here's the album collection which chronicled the 1976 and '78 British concerts established to fight the rising trend of neo-fascist skinhead gangs in the UK

Robert Mapplethorpe

This gifted, militantly Gay photogrpaher set off a firestorm of controversy in opposition to the neo-cons of the Reagan administration and the Edwin Meese "decency" doctrine.

Patti Smith

brazenly outspoken punk poet and activist, late 1970s

'Reds' 1982

Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton as John Reed and Louise Bryant, en route to Petrograd

ROCK AGAINST REAGAN

The Dead Kennedys headed up the bill for this protest concert, Washington DC, 1983

Nuyorican Poets Cafe

'Bedtime for Democracy'

Public Enemy

Karen Finley

The sexually provacative feminist performance artist did constant battle with the neo-cons of the 1980s and '90s and became a poster child for right-wing calls to suspend funding to the NEA

'Mumia 911'

This series of arts-actions occured in multiple spaces throughout NYC and other cities in an attempt to raise both funds and awareness for the cause of Mumia Abu-Jamal, journalist and Black Panther who was framed on a police murder charge in the lates '70s and continues to sit in death row now. For this event, NY's Brecht Forum hosted an all-day marathon on September 11, 1999, the house band of which was led by John Pietaro.

Pete Seeger, Music in the History of Struggle, 1999

with the Ray Korona Band, John Pietaro on percussion. 1199SEIU auditorium, NYC

Ani DiFranco

Fred Ho

The revolutionary saxophonist/composer has successfully forged an avant garde music which bridges improvisation and New Music composition w/ Marxism, Maoism and traditional Chinese folk art.

'Not in Our Name'

Charlie Haden reunites his revolutionary ensemble one more time to speak out against the Bush administration's manipulations of the populace, 2005.

The Brecht Forum

The Brecht Forum/NYC Marxist School came to be a fixture of Left education and culture in the early 1970s lasting through 2014.

Dissident Arts Festival 2016

Dissident Arts 2018

Joe Hill

The Industrial Workers Band

Arturo Giovannitti, around 1912

brilliant IWW poet/organizer who composed epic pieces about his imprisonment and the struggle for a more equitable society

Ralph Chaplin

IWW songwriter and journalist who penned "Solidarity Forever" in 1911

John Reed at his desk

note the Provincetown Playhouse poster!

Robert Minor, 'The Masses'

July 1916

Louise Bryant

Crusading journalist seen here approx 1918

Max Eastman

writer, activist, editor of 'The Masses'

Isadora Duncan

Modern Dance in revolution

Robert Minor

The radical artist and leading CPUSA functionary

Michael Gold

Cultural conscience of 'the Daily Worker', 'New Masses' and acclaimed proletarian novelist seen here addresseing a May Day crowd on the streets of Manhattan, early 1930s.

"Costume Ball--Where All Toilers Meet!"

The Daily Worker, January 14, 1928

VJ Jerome

Communist Party cultural commissar

NYC, 1931: A delegation of the John Reed Club following a trip to Harlan County, VA

John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Sam Ornitz

'The Crisis'

1933, radical magazine of Black American militancy

Marc Blitzstein

member of the Composers Collective of New York

'Negro Songs of Protest'

Compiled by Lawrence Gellert, illustrations by his brother the great Communist artist Hugo Gellert. The songs were arranged by Ellie Siegmeister of the Composers Collective of NY

'The Workers Song book, Workers Music League, 1934

compiled by the Composers Collective of New York

American Artists' Congress

Signed by AAC Secretary STUART DAVIS

Diego Rivera

Diego Rivera

"Class Struggle"

Diego Rivera's amazing work told the story of the workers' fight against capitalist exploitation --and was created as a commision for Rockefeller Center's main hall. It was not long before John D had the piece destroyed.

'Processional', 1937

modernist drama by John Howard Lawson, a leader of CPUSA cultural activists

The Almanac Singers, 1941

THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS

Woody

Silent speak-back to HUAC

George Orwell

the British writer maintained his democratic socialist views through his great novels

Earl Robinson, ca 1940s

member of the Composers Collective of New York, leader of the American People's Chorus and a musician of the people throughout his career. Among his compositions was "Joe Hill", "The House I Live in", "Ballad for Americans" and "Black and White"

Hanns Eisler, HUAC hearing, 1947

Trumbo and Lawson

Paul Robeson at Peekskill

Flanked by unionist and Communist guards, staring down the fascist mobs at Peekskill NY, 1949

Sinclair Lewis

'It Can't Happen Here'

Dashiell Hammet

closing out the HUAC onslaught

'Salt of the Earth'

Paul Robeson shouts down HUAC

"You are the Un-Americans--and you should be ashamed of yourselves!"

W.E.B. DuBois

Stockholm Peace Conference, 1955

'Rebel Poets of America', 1957 LP

Kenneth Patchen and Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Amiri Baraka

"We Insist!--Freedom Now Suite"

Max Roach with Abbey Lincoln

Lorraine Hansberry

Peter, Paul and Mary

1963 March on Washington

'Spartacus', 1964

The tale of a unified slave revolt was first written by Howard Fast in novel form and then realized for the screen by Dalton Trumbo

Bill Dixon's OCTOBER REVOLUTION IN JAZZ, 1964

John Coltrane

Seen here performing his powerful piece, "Alabama" on German television, 1965. The story of the church bombing which killed four African American girls and injured others was retold in this mournful work.

The Fugs

Radical Greenwich Village poets turn rock-n-rollers of a whole other sort, 1965

Freedom Marching

James Baldwin, Joan Baez, and James Forman (left to right) enter Montgomery, Alabama on the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights, 1965.

You Can't Jail the Revolution

Shades of Chicago, '68

Sam Rivers

The great jazz musician who helped to found the avant garde loft scene in the 1960s was devoutly outspoken with regard to radical politics and the incorporation of same into his music. He is seen here performing at his own NYC space, Studio Rivbea. From the look of that tom-tom to the left, the drummer is Milford Graves who not only broke new ground into improvisational music but its part in Black liberation and other revolutionary struggles.

Henry Cow, late '60s

British avant rock band also engaged in social statements and celebrated the music of Brecht & Eisler

Charlie Haden's Liberation Music Orchestra

1969: Bassist extraordinaire Haden (right) unites with pianist-arranger Carla Bley (left), trumpeter Don Cherry (kneeling) and a wealth of others to create a radical album of anti-war music. Included in the collection was a powerful reconfiguring of Brecht and Eisler's Song of the United Front

Gil Scott Heron

"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

MC 5

Kicking out the jam as well as the walls of conformity

Rally for John Sinclair

this fund- and awareness-raising event was in honor of the noted anti-war activist who'd been arrested on trumped-up drug charges. It featured John and Yoko, Alan Ginsberg, Phil Ochs, Archie Shepp, Commander Cody and a host of others

Art Ensemble of Chicago

Revolutionary composition/improvisation: "a great Black music"

Victor Jara

The great Chilean revolutionary songwriter

TILLIE OLSEN w/MAYA ANGELOU

Writers March Against Apartheid, 1970s

Frederic Rzewski

In 1975 the composer created "THE PEOPLE UNITED WILL NEVER BE DEFEATED", inspired by the struggles of farm workers and militants around the globe

Richard Hell

Nihilistic poet of punk performing with the Voidoids at CBGB

ABC No Rio

activist performance space, NY's Lower East Side

'London Calling'

The Clash

Fela Kuti

Revolution in song from Nigeria

'Bonzo Goes to Bitburg', 1985

The Ramones satiric commentary on Reagan's visit to the Nazi soldiers cemetary

'Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing'

Artist Space, NYC, 1989: reactionaries tried at all costs to shut down this boldly outspoken exhibit on AIDS

Day Without Art

Visual AIDS and other arts activist organizations created a Day Without Art to commemorate World AIDS Day

Tupac Shakur

Militant Hip Hop 101

'Somebody Blew Up America'

Amiri Baraka, fearlessly taking on the controversial causes of the 9/11 attacks

Robeson

After falling victim to a nation which tried to disappear him, Paul Robeson is honored with his own stamp

The first Dissident Fest: The Dissident Folk Festival 2006

This event featured Malachy McCourt, Pete Seeger, Bev Grant, Lack and a bevy of radical jazz musicians, poets and more